Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone: Rewritten
by Dangerous Horizon
Summary: What if Ryou and Harry were best friends before he even knew about Hogwarts? How would the story change? Ryou guides Harry through his time there.Fem!Ryou. NOT HarryxRyou. Warnings and full summary inside. Review!
1. The Vanishing Glass

**A/N: This is my first crossover, specifically a YuGiOh/Harry Potter crossover. Hope you enjoy it! This is the first book and if it is popular, I will do the next one. If that's popular, I'll do the next and so on.**

**Summary: What if Ryou and Harry were best friends, before he knew about Hogwarts. What if Ryou could wield Shadow Magick, herself? What if Ryou was a powerful shadow mage? What if she was there to help Harry throughout his years at Hogwarts, but at a distance?**

**Warnings: Fem!Ryou, AU, None of the original HP couples, takes a lot of text from original Potter book, very long chapters, sticks almost to the original story with a lot of changes, Ron-bashing, Dumbledore-bashing.**

**Ryou doesn't actually attend Hogwarts.**

**Chapter One-The Vanishing Glass**

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night that Mrs Dursley had woken the neighbourhood, screeching, when she found her sister's son on the doorstep. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different coloured bobble hats-but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large, blonde boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother while a pale-skinned, white-haired girl pulled a face in the background-which the Dursley's failed to notice. However, the room held no sign that another boy lived in the house too.

Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.

"Up!" She screeched. Harry heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it. He had a funny feeling he had the same dream before.

His aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly" said Harry.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn! I want everything perfect on Diddy's birthday!"

Harry didn't know whether to groan or snicker, so he ended up making an odd sound in between either.

"What did you say?" His aunt snapped.

"Nothing, nothing…"

Dudley's birthday-how could he have forgotten? But then, _Diddy?_ He hadn't heard his aunt use that one before. Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.

When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden under all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley got that new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise-unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favourite punching bag used to be Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast. He was also no longer a punching bag, thanks to his only friend-Ryou Bakura.

It happened one day, when Dudley and his gang had caught him and was about to beat him up and all of a sudden a small, white-haired girl seemingly popped up out of nowhere and said "Pick on somebody your own size, fatty!" She had then proceeded to punching Dudley in the face. He and his gang had scrambled away from the harmless looking girl and ran to their mothers. Ryou had then introduced herself to Harry and told him that she wasn't often violent, but she knew when somebody needed help. That day was the best of Harry's life, as not only did he gain a friend, but Dudley spent the next month walking around with a broken jaw! Just like Harry was very fast, Ryou didn't look it, but she was incredibly strong.

Perhaps it was something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked smaller and skinnier than he actually was (around Ryou's size) because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's and Dudley was around four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright green eyes. He wore round glasses held together with Sellotape, because of all the times Dudley punched him in the nose, before he met Ryou. Of course, the Dursleys didn't bother getting him a new pair.

The only thing Harry like about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead, which was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had had it for as long as he could remember and the first question he could remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he got it.

"In the car crash when your parents died" she had said "and don't ask questions"

_Don't ask questions_-that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys. Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.

"Comb your hair!" he barked by way of morning greeting. About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way-all over the place. Of course, Ryou had said she like it that way. Harry like Ryou's hair too, especially when she forgot to brush it and it ended up looking like she had bat wings.

Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pink face, not much neck, watery blue eyes and thick, blonde hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel-Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig. When this was mentioned to Ryou, she had told Harry to stop insulting 'those poor pigs'.

Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.

"Thirty-six" he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."

"All right, thirty-seven then" said D" said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began to wolf down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger too, because she said quickly "And we'll buy you another _two _presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? _Two _more presents. Is that all right?"

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So, I'll have thirty…thirty…"

"Thirty nine, sweetums" said Aunt Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then".

Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair. Harry imagined a smart arse comment Ryou might have made just then. 'Having more people in the world like you isn't necessarily a good thing, _Mister Dursley_'. Ryou always put emphasis on their names to show that she was mocking the respect you were meant to show while greeting others using a title.

At that moment, the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a cine-camera, a remote control aeroplane, sixteen new computer games and a video recorder. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone, looking both angry and worried.

"Bad news, Vernon" she said "Mrs Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction. Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned. The only good thing about it was that Ryou would often join him there so they could talk together and he wouldn't have to endure the 'Eternal Torment Of The Cats' as Ryou had dubbed it, alone.

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry Mrs Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy as he reminded himself that it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr Paws and Tufty again.

"We could phone Marge" Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy"

The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there-or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them-like a slug.

"What about whats-her-name? Your friend-Yvonne"

"On holiday in Majorca" snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could leave me at Ryou's house" Harry put in hopefully, he had always like it there. Ryou was very creative and a little strange too. Her house was decorate beautifully, but Harry couldn't quite grasp exactly what had made her decide that in the lounge the ceiling would be a good place to put her carpet. They always had fun there.

Aunt Petunia looked like she had just swallowed a lemon.

"Don't think we don't know what you and that _girl _get up to when you're over there!"

Harry knew the Dursley's didn't know what they did at Ryou's house and he had no desire to see what they thought Ryou and him were doing there.

"I suppose we could take him to the zoo" Aunt Petunia said slowly "…and leave him in the car…"

"The car's new. He's not sitting in it alone."

Dudley began to cry really loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying, it had been years since he really cried, but he knew if he scrunched up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" She cried, flinging her arms around him.

"I…don't…want…him t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through his mother's arms.

Just then, the doorbell rang-"Oh, Good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically-and a moment later, Dudley's best friend Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursley's car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.

"I'm warning you" he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's "I'm warning you now, boy-any funny business, anything at all- and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas.

"I'm not going to do anything" Said Harry "Honestly…"

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one except Ryou ever did.

The problem was, strange things often happen around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen. Ryou was what was called a 'Shadow Mage'. Apparently, they were very rare magic users to come by. She had told him that it wasn't shadow magick, but another type of magick and she was going to do research about other branches. She had yet to get back to him on that.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe, which she left to 'hide that horrible scar'. Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and his Sellotaped glasses. Next morning, however, he had got up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he _couldn't _explain how it had grown back so quickly.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old jumper of Dudley's (brown with orange bobbles). The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fit a glove puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.

On the other hand, he had gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him (before he had met Ryou) when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress, telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed th wind must have caught him mid-jump.

When he had told Ryou this story and offered the flimsy explanation she had laughed and said "Of course it wasn't the wind Harry. You probably just flew." She had mentioned this in an incredibly casual way, indeed.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard or Mrs Figg's house and sometimes Ryou's when he could manage it. While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He like to complain about things: Harry, the council, Harry, the bank and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning it was motorbikes.

"Roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums" he said as a motorbike overtook them.

"I had a dream about a motorbike" said Harry, remembering suddenly, "It was flying."

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beetroot with a moustache "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"

Dudley and Piers snickered.

"I know they don't. It was only a dream." But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than him asking questions, it was his talking about anything that was acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon-they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursley's bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice-creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady at the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice lolly. It wasn't bad either, Harry thought while licking it, while they watched a gorilla scratching it's head and looking remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blonde.

Harry had the best morning he had in a long time. They ate in the zoo restaurant because Dudley had had a tantrum that his knickerbocker glory wasn't big enough. Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. Harry felt, afterwards, that he should've known it was all too good to last.

After lunch, they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling or slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see the huge poisonous cobras and thick man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped it's body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a dustbin-but at that moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.

Dudley stood with his nose pressed up against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

"Make it move" he whined to his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.

"Do it again" Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped on the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake didn't budge.

"This is boring" Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.

Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself- no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard for a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up-at least he got to visit the rest of the house.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, it lifted its head until its eyes were level with Harry's.

_It winked._

Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked too. If Ryou was there, she would've told him that he was losing it.

The snake jerked his head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look which quite plainly said '_I get that all the time'._

"I know" Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."  
>The snake nodded vigorously.<p>

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked, making a mental note to tell Ryou that he could talk to snakes later, in case that would help with her finding the right branch of magic.

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass.

_Boa Constrictor, Brazil._

"Was it nice there?"

The Boa Constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again.

_This specimen was bred in the zoo._

"Oh, I see. So you've never been to Brazil?"

As the snake shook his head, a deafening shout came from behind Harry making them both jump.

"DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T _BELIEVE _WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could.

"Out of my way, you" He shoved Harry aside. Caught by surprise, he fell on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened- one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror. Harry sat up and gasped; the glass at the front of the Boa Constrictor's cage had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on the floor- people throughout the reptile house started screaming and running for the exits. As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low hissing voice said "Brazil, here I come, thanksss, amigo."

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

"But the glass" he kept saying "Where did the glass go"

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologised over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it had passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had almost bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.

But worst of all, for Harry at least, Piers was calming down enough to say "Harry was talking to it, weren't you Harry?"

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry, he could hardly speak. He managed to say "Go-cupboard-stay-no meals" before he collapsed into a chair and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch and making a second mental note to tell Ryou about the vanishing glass, too. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking into the kitchen to steal some food.

He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he was a baby and his parents died in a car crash. He couldn't remember being in a car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision; a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where the green light had come from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.

At school Harry had no one, but Ryou (who was an outcast herself, for entirely different reasons, which she had never bothered explaining to him). Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses and no one liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

**Review please! I spent HOURS on this. And yes, it is meant to be following along the same lines as the original HP books. This took forever and I'm not entirely sure it's good enough to continue. So I will probably continue if I get about 5 reviews (that means more than just one other person likes it). **

**REVIEW! *Shoves Ryou looking up at you with puppy dog eyes. You know you can't resist! **


	2. The Letters From No One

**A/N: Here's the second chapter! Thanks to those who reviewed!**

**Summary: What if Ryou and Harry were best friends, before he knew about Hogwarts. What if Ryou could wield Shadow Magick, herself? What if Ryou was a powerful shadow mage? What if she was there to help Harry throughout his years at Hogwarts, but at a distance?**

**Warnings: Fem!Ryou, AU, None of the original HP couples, takes a lot of text from original Potter book, very long chapters , sticks almost to the original story with a lot of changes, Ron-bashing, Dumbledore-bashing.**

**Ryou DOES attend Hogwarts. Last chapter I lied. After I wrote it, I realised that if Ryou didn't attend Hogwarts then not much would change from the original.**

**DISCLAIMER: I forgot to put this in last chapter! So just so I don't get sued…I own neither Harry Potter or Yu-Gi-Oh and I'm making no money… **

**Wow…So many reviews (For me) *drools***

**Loretta537: **Yes, Ryou will be going to Hogwarts

**Yaysarahjay: **I'm trying to write in the same way as J.K. Rowling, so there will probably be more description in other chapters

**TheBlackSeaReaper: **Thank you! I'll try and keep up the hard work! Here's your update!

**Naru-chan 92: **Don't worry. Harry and Ryou will interact more later, as they are both the main characters and best friends!

**Mukila: **Here's another chapter!

**TimeAndRythmDoesIndeedSleep: **There won't be any yamis in this story so no Yami Bakura…awww…but that would probably just complicate the plot and it's already twisted aroung inside my head. I may add some more Yu-Gi-Oh characters later on…we'll see how it goes

**PiWrite: **Yes, it does seem like I mixed them together doesn't it. I'm writing Ryou as hikari Bakura, with a splash of spunk and I made her all creative and witty :D

**Alalaya2:**There's no defence against the puppy dog eyes! MWAHAHA! :D

**HPYug fan: **Yes, of course! It's so sad when you start reading a good story then it's cancelled all of a sudden! I can't promise a fixed time on updates though, I'm taking my GCSEs and I have a lot of homework and studying for tests to do!

**Chapter Two- The Letters From No one**

The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new cine-camera, crashed his remote-control aeroplane and, first time on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. When Harry looked across the street, he could see Ryou's house opposite with splats of paint all over it-he supposed she had finally got round to painting it. Harry sometimes wondered if her parents would let her do half the things she did- just because.

Ryou's mum had died when she was 5, in a car crash with her in the back seat, at around9 years old, her dad had left for 'work' as an archaeologist and never came back. Harry supposed her father didn't really have much right to approve or disapprove of anything she did. These 'things' included painting just about anything and everything she could get her hands on (Harry remembered that her father had been obsessed with schoolwork and didn't like creativity at all), skateboarding everywhere she went and hanging out with Harry.

Harry decided that he was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was their leader. The rest of them were quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry-hunting. This was done when Ryou was away and nobody else was around to tattle to her.

This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around, thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came Ryou and Harry would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley and he would be with his only friend-Ryou. Dudley had a place at Uncle Vernon's old school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry and Ryou, on the other hand, were going to Stonewall High, the local comprehensive. Dudley thought this was very funny.

On a breezy Saturday, when Harry and Ryou were sitting talking on the swings, Dudley, with the absence of his usual gang, waddled up to them and said to Harry "They stuff people's heads down the toilet first day at Stonewall, want to go and practise?"

Harry glanced at Ryou and she nodded encouragingly at him, so he answered.

"No thanks, the poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it-it might be sick!" Grabbing Ryou's hand they both ran in the opposite direction before Dudley could work out what he had said.

They ran all the way to Ryou's house and collapsed on the sofa, still laughing.

"Oh Harry, did you see his face?" Ryou giggled at him.

"Yeah, that felt good. I thought he was frightened of you though, I wonder why he decided to risk it today…" Harry mused.

"Well, I only hit him once and that was years ago" She replied "Maybe I just didn't hit him hard enough!"

Again, they burst out laughing. Things always were much funnier with friends.

One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs Figg's. Mrs Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she had broken her leg tripping over one of her cats and wasn't as fond of them as she was before. Ryou also joined him there, although she had brought books with her so she could research the strange things happening around Harry. Apparently the books were ancient spell books of Shadow Mages, Wiccans and Sorcerers. Maybe he should ask what the difference was.

"Sorry, Harry, I haven't found anything yet" Ryou said when he interrupted her reading.

"Err, that's not what I wanted to know. Actually, I wanted to know what the difference is between Shadow Mages, Sorcerers and Wiccans." Harry replied.

"Oh, well, you see, Wiccans use nature primarily in their magick and to access their magick they do rituals and there are certain things required for rituals, like candles and sometimes an athame. They also need to bless the ritual area and thank the goddesses. They can't use their magick for bad, as they believe in karma-whatever goes up, must come down.

Sorcerers are very powerful, but need a staff to command their magick. They can do spells whenever they want, but every time they do a spell, they take just a couple of seconds of from their life. It doesn't sound like much, but they sometimes get too addicted to magick and use it for every little thing, until it builds up into years. To become a sorcerer you must make a deal with a spirit and it gives you a sorcerer's staff. Every time you use a spell the staff is what drains you of life and when you eventually die, the spirit takes the staff and lives as a human for the amount of time you gave up. The greedier the spell, the more time is given."

"And Shadow Mages?" Questioned Harry, this was all very interesting.

"Shadow Mages, as the name suggests, draw power from the shadows and from within themselves to control their magick. We don't need a ritual or a staff to do magick. Or a wand…I've heard of that being used to contain magick inside sometimes. A wand wouldn't work with a Shadow Mage, though, you can't contain the shadows. Some mages use things like jewellery or cards to filter their magick, but never to contain it. If Shadow Magick is contained, then it does all it can to break free and cause chaotic effects. When Shadow Magick is used, an equal amount of dark and light magick must be used, or all universal magick will be thrown into disorder. It doesn't matter if you don't get it each exactly half, but you have to have it around about fifty per cent of each being used.

The Shadow Mages are dying out-as you know, Harry- and when there are no Shadow Mages, there will be no one to control the shadows, so everything will be thrown out of balance and the universe will be smothered with darkness…" Ryou talked for a very long time, until she trailed off, staring blankly in front of her.

"Uh…Ryou?" Harry waved his hand in front of her face and she snapped out of her stupor and quickly shook her head.

"Sorry, Harry, got a bit caught up in that. Actually, I got _really _caught up in that…Oh well, you see all magick has repercussions."

Then she turned back to her book like it was nothing and continued reading. Harry stared at the television, but he wasn't really watching. He was thinking about what Ryou had told him. _You see all magick has repercussions._

Then what was the repercussion for the magick happening around _him?_

That evening Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand new uniform. Smeltings boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks used for hitting each other with while teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.

As he looked at Dudley in his knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon gruffly said that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak, wishing Ryou was there so he could share this humorous moment with her. He thought two of his ribs had cracked already from trying not to laugh.

There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water.

"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.

"Your new school uniform" she said.

Harry looked into the bowl again.

"Oh" he said "I didn't realise it had to be so wet."

"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things grey for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."

Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best no to argue. He sat down at the table zand tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall-like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin probably.

Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smeltings stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table."

They heard the click of the letter-box and flop of letters on the doormat.

"Get the post, Dudley" said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.

"Make Harry get it."  
>"Get the post, Harry."<br>"Make Dudley get it."

"Poke him with your Smeltings stick, Dudley. "

Harry dodged the Smeltings stick and went to collect the mail.

Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge, who was holidaying in the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill and- _a letter for Harry._

Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like an elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no other relatives, his only friend lived just across the street, he wasn't a member of the library so he'd never gotten rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:

_Mr H Potter_

_The Cupboard under the Stairs_

_4 Privet Drive_

_Little Whinging_

_Surrey_

The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald green ink. There was no stamp, nor was there a return address.

Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal, bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter 'H'.

"Hurry up, boy," Shouted Uncle Vernon "What are you doing, checking for letter-bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke. If Ryou was there she would have gagged at how bad it was. Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and postcard and, sat down and was about to open the yellow envelope when he realised that it would be a stupid thing to do in front of the Dursleys.

Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, then flipped over the postcard.

"Marge's ill" he informed Aunt Petunia "Ate a funny whelk…"

"Dad!" Said Dudley suddenly "Harry's got something!"

Harry froze halfway to hiding the letter to open later and swore in his head. The envelope was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon. The seal tore off as he tried to cling to it, unfortunately that was the only thing he managed to keep.

"That's _mine!_" Said Harry, trying to snatch it back.

"Who'd be writing to you?" Sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter out of the envelope with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the greyish white of old porridge.

"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.

Dudley tried to grab the letter but Uncle Vernon held it out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.

"Vernon! Oh my goodness Vernon!"

They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smeltings stick.

"I want to read that letter" he said loudly.

"I want to read it" said Harry, furiously "as it's _mine._"

"Get out, both of you" croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.

Harry didn't move. "I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.

"Let _me _see it!" demanded Dudley.

"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley had a silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between the floor and door.

"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice "look at the address-how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"

"Watching-spying-might be following us" muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.

"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want-"

Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.

"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer…yes, that's best…we won't do anything…"

"But-"

"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"

That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.

"Where's my letter?" said Harry the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?"

"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake" said Uncle Vernon shortly "I have burned it"

"It was _not _a mistake," said Harry angrily "It had my cupboard on it"

"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.

"Er-yes, Harry-about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking…you're really getting a bit big for it…we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.

Harry stared at him suspiciously. "Why?" he asked.

"Don't ask questions!" snapped his Uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now!"

The Dursley's house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Aunt Marge), on where Dudley slept and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. Harry knew if Ryou ever found out about this fact (and that he had slept in a cupboard his whole life), she would change from sweet and innocent best friend into rampaging revenge-seeking mode in an instant. Of course, he wasn't planning on her finding out. It was a very rare occasion when Ryou got angry and you wouldn't want to be within range when she does.

It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to his new room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old cine-camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over next door's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favourite programme had been cancelled; there was a large bird cage which had once held a parrot which Dudley had swapped at school for a real air-rifle, which was up on the shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched. Ryou would have been scandalised.

"Books," she had once told him "are meant to be read at least once, because if you never read them then who knows what hidden knowledge within the pages could never be discovered?"

Of course, she would have been scandalised, but she wouldn't have been shocked. It _was_ Dudley after all. However, Harry knew that if he didn't read them or give them to her to read then Ryou would be extremely disappointed in him. Harry doubted if any books given Dudley had anything interesting in them, but decided he had nothing better to do, so he pulled a book off the shelf and began to read.

The next hour found him enthralled in the-at first-boring looking book. Harry was lost in a world where dragons breathed fire on the unworthy and fairies danced in the moonlight, the main character in the book was about to slay the almighty dragon. Then, drawing Harry out from the amazing world inside his head, Dudley's bawling voice aimed at his mother came crashing up the stairs.

"I don't _want _him in there…I _need _that room…make him get out…"

Harry sighed placing the book down and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today, he'd rather be back in his cupboard with the letter than up here without it, no matter how fascinating the books were.

Net morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smeltings stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof and he still didn't have his room back. Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other, darkly.

When the post arrived Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his Smeltings stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted "There's another one! _Mr H Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive_-"

With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon by the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smeltings stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.

"Go to your cupboard-I mean, your bedroom" he wheezed at Harry "Dudley-go-just go."

Harry walked round and around his new room. Someone knew he had been moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.

The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He really should of ran his plan through with Ryou first-she was much better at planning than him- but there wasn't enough time and he hadn't seen her since before he got his first letter. He decided to continue anyway.

He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights. He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of privet drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept along the wall towards the front door-

"AAAAARRRGH!"

Harry leapt into the air-he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat-something _alive!_"

Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realised that the big squashy something had been his Uncle's face. Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled off miserably into the kitchen and by the time he arrived back the post had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.

"I want-" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes.

Ryou's voice drifted into his head _'"I want" never gets'._

Harry wasn't sure why that particular saying had come up into this situation. Even if he hadn't started his sentence with 'I want', he doubted that he'd have the letters either way. Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at hiome and nailed up the mail box.

"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails "if they can't _deliver _them, they'll just give up."

"I'm not sure that will work, Vernon"

"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock a nail in with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.

_Who would want to be? _Ryou's amused voice drifted once again through Harry's mind.

On Friday, no fewer than twelve letters arrived for Harry. Since Uncle Vernon had nailed the mailbox, Harry wasn't allowed out, so he still had yet to see Ryou. As the letters couldn't get through the letter-box, they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs toilet.

Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the front and back doors so on one could get out. Harry's heart sank. There was no way he'd be able to see Ryou now! Uncle Vernon hummed 'Tiptoe through the Tulips' as he worked, and jumped at small noises.

On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside the two dozen eggs that their very confused milk-man had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food mixer.

"Who on earth wants to talk to _you _this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.

He didn't know…

On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.

"No post on Sundays," he reminded them happily as he spread marmalade on his newspapers "no damn letters today-"

Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply in the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one-

"Out! OUT!"

Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.

"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his moustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes, ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"

He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue. Harry, however, resisted any attempt his body made at laughing. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded up doors-though he could of just undid the screws in a matter of minutes, though Harry wasn't going to point that out-and in the car, speeding towards the motorway. Dudley was sniffling in the backseat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, video and computer into his sports bag.

They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turning and drive in the opposite direction for a while.

"Shake 'em off…shake 'em off" he would mutter whenever he did this.

They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programmes he'd wanted to see and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.

_Welcome to my life…_Harry thought, bitterly.

Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and musty sheets. Dudley snored, but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the window sill, staring down at passing cars and wondering not only who sent the letter…but why were they writing to him?

They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.

"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."

She held up the letter so they could read the green ink address.

_Mr H Potter_

_Room 17_

_Railview Hotel_

_Cokeworth_

Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.

"I'll take them" said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her to the dining room.

"Wouldn't it be better to just go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across an extension bridge and at the top of a multi-storey car park.

"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car and disappeared. It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled.

"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a _television_." Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it _was _Monday-and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week, because of television-the tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday. For the first time since he met Ryou, he wouldn't be spending the day with her-but with the Dursleys in an unknown place, with no means of communicating with her.

Birthdays spent with the Dursleys were never really fun-last year the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.

Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked him what he's bought.

"Found the perfect place!" he said "Come on! Everyone out!"

It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out to sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.

_Why are you thinking about television? _Again, Ryou's voice drifted into his mind.

'_Why are you still making remarks, even when you're not here?' _Harry shot back.

_Why are you arguing with a voice in your head?_

'_Touché' _Harry conceded, since arguing with someone who wasn't there seemed like a ridiculous thing to do.

"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon, gleefully clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"

A toothless old man came ambling towards them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at and old rowing boat bobbing in the iron-grey water below them.

"I've already got us some rations" said Uncle Vernon "so all aboard!"

It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken down house.

The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.

Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a packet of crisps each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire, but the empty crisp packets just smoked and shrivelled up.

"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.

He was in a very good mood. Obviously, he thought no one stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver post.

Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all. Although, Ryou probably would be able to. She was lazy sometimes, but once she set her mind to something there was no stopping her.

As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few mouldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.

The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable. His stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa, on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes time. He lay in bed and watched as his birthday ticked nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.

Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although, he might be warmer if it did. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back, he'd be able to steal one somehow.

Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?

One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds…Ryou would be asleep right now…twenty seconds…ten-nine-maybe he'd wake Dudley up just to annoy him-three-two-one-

BOOM.

The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door.

Someone was outside, knocking to come in.

A pretty girl with white, waist length hair and huge chocolate brown eyes lay awake, worried. She hadn't seen or heard from Harry for a couple of weeks now. She would of thought he'd just been grounded by his very strict guardians, but now their car was missing and she was sure Harry would of told her if they were going somewhere-regardless of being grounded or not.

Ryou Bakura slid out of bed and pulled on her trainers and a hoodie over her pyjamas. She was going to investigate the Dursley's house. Upon arrival, she noticed that they had forgotten to lock the door. Shrugging it off, as it was to her advantage, Ryou stepped into the house and noticed several hundred envelopes on the floor. Bending down and picking on up she read the address. Flipping it over, she ignored the seal and tore it open.

"Hogwarts, huh?" Ryou spoke quietly to herself "So that's it."

Glancing at the clock on the wall, her eyes widened.

"Happy birthday, Harry."

**OH MY GOSH! This took even more time than last chapter. I suppose that's to be expected as it's much longer than last chapter. I wasn't actually planning on it being this long, but I had to include all the information from the book and all my own ideas. I also had to include the ending scene. (I didn't HAVE to, I suppose, but I wanted to).**

**So there you are. REVIEW PLEASE! NomNomNom…revieewwwss…**

**xoxo**


	3. Keeper of the Keys

**Summary: What if Ryou and Harry were best friends, before he knew about Hogwarts. What if Ryou could wield Shadow Magick, herself? What if Ryou was a powerful shadow mage? What if she was there to help Harry throughout his years at Hogwarts, but at a distance?**

**Warnings: Fem!Ryou, AU, None of the original HP couples, takes a lot of text from original Potter book, long chapters, sticks almost to the original story with a lot of changes, Ron-bashing, Dumbledore-bashing.**

**I am SO SO SORRY about how long this chapter took to come out! I know you don't want excuses, but I just have to tell you I participated in NaNoWriMo this year and won!**

**If you haven't read my profile, you won't know, but, next year I'm taking part in something called MilWordy – the challenge to write a million words in a year. Not only will I be working on my fanfictions during this, I'll also be working on original fiction, which I'll be uploading to my (brand shiny new) blog!**

** . /**

***Shameless self advertising is shameless***

**Tri-Emperor of The Twilight: **Thanks. :D I hope it continues being good.

**Nameless Sky: *** gasp* You mean there are more of my kind? Thanks, I just think it will make it seem more logical that they're really close friends if they meet each other before Hogwarts and it would be incredibly difficult to explain if Ryou didn't know about Shadow magick beforehand.

**Tabet: **Thankyou . Here's your update.

**Negima Uzumaki: **Sorry to tell you, but Harry isn't a shadow mage in my story and the millennium items don't exist in this world…unless I decide to put them in later. (don't count on it though) Duel Monsters are only summoned by shadow mages.

**Yakari School: **Thank you I think I did okay on the tests so far, but there's a bunch more in January as well!

**Kiara Victory Tatsu: **Thanks! Sorry for the long wait, but here's the next chapter you wanted!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three-The Keeper of the Keys<strong>

Ryou was not happy. It was the middle of the night and (after dressing properly) she had decided that she would try and find these 'wizards'. Exactly why had she never heard of them before? Were they hiding from the other magick-users or did they even know that other magick-users existed? What kind of powers did they have? What were the consequences for their magick? Was Harry in any danger? _He better not be! _Ryou thought furiously to herself.

However, the reason Ryou was not happy was because she couldn't find these wizards. She was standing on a random street in London, near a dodgy-looking pub named 'The Leaky Cauldron' . What kind of name was that, anyway? Although, the name did sound much like a wizard with a vast appreciation for tackiness had decided on it. It seemed like an intelligent place to begin her search. Wrinkling her nose, she headed towards the grimy pub.

Those wizards had better be there. She really didn't want to do this, but she would anyway; for Harry. She would not lose him, to _anyone._

* * *

><p>BOOM! Whoever was outside knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.<p>

"Where's the canon?" He asked, stupidly.

There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands- now they knew what had been in that long, thin package he had brought with them.

"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you – I'm armed!"

There was a pause. Then –

SMASH!

The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.

A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.

The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.

"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey"

Harry thought it was rather absurd to knock down someone's door (quite literally) and then ask for a drink.

The giant strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen in fear.

"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger. Harry decided he liked him already, as Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.

"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.

Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.

"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but you've got your mum's eyes."

Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.

"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"

"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant. He reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber and threw it into a corner of the room.

Uncle Vernon made another funny noise which sounded like a mouse being trodden on.

"Anyway – Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here – I mighta sat on it at one point, but it's taste all right."

From an inside pocket of his black overcoat, he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with _Happy Birthday Harry _written on it in green icing.

Harry looked up at the giant. He had so many questions.

"Thank you for the cake, but who are you and what are you doing here? How did you find me? Were you the one sending letters to me? How come-"

The giant chuckled.

"You have a lot o' questions. True, though. I havn't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."

He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.

"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no to summat stronger if you've got it, mind."

Harry thought about what Ryou might say if she were here. _Don't be stupid, we're in the middle of the ocean and you think we have __**tea?**_

He didn't believe this. This strange man-Hagrid- had knocked down the door and requested tea as though it was an everyday conversation. He did this, despite the fact he had a gun pointed at his head.

Hagrid's eyes fell on the empty grate with the shrivelled up crisp packets in it and he snorted, before pulling out a pink umbrella and pointing it at the fireplace. The crisp packets lit up in flames.

Harry narrowed his eyes. What kind of magick-user was this man and were they the same type? Were they completely different? Was this man a warlock? Or a wiccan? Maybe he was even a shadow mage, like Ryou…no…no…the shadow mages were very rare and it was very unlikely to have more than one in a single country unless they were family or one was training another. Then, who exactly was this man?

"Excuse me, Sir, but I still don't really know who you are."

"Well, as I said, I'm keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts. You'll know all about Hogwarts, of course."

"Uh…no?" Harry replied, wondering if it was something he should know.

"Blimey, Harry, haven't you ever wondered where your mum and dad learned it all?"

"Learned what?"

"LEARNED WHAT!? LEARNED WHAT!? WHY, MAGIC, OF COURSE! DIDN'T THESE PIGS TEACH YOU ANYTHING!?"

Harry stared at Hagrid, who was red with fury and running out of breath.

"No." He replied calmly, hoping to see what Hagrid would do. "No, they didn't teach me anything. They didn't even tell me about my parents. Did they really die in a car crash?"

If they did, Harry decided that this new magic simply wasn't worth studying professionally. Perhaps he would do some in his spare time, but if a type of magic couldn't protect somebody from something as simple as a car crash, what use was it?

"CAR CRASH!" Hagrid yelled, after drawing another breath "LILY AND JAMES POTTER DIE IN A CAR CRASH! How could a car crash kill Lily and James Potter? It's an outrage! It's a scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"

He turned to Harry, seemingly trying to regain his composure, after throwing a dirty look in the Dursley's direction.

"I have somethin' ta give ta ya'" Hagrid pulled an envelope out of his pocket that looked exactly the same as the others which had surely filled Number Four Privet Drive to the brim by now. Harry stretched out a shaking hand and took the envelope out of Hagrid's massive hand. This was it. He was finally going to read the letter.

"Boy! Don't you dare! I forbid you from opening that letter!" barked Uncle Vernon, but Harry took no notice as he tore open the envelope and found a piece of folded parchment inside.

He read;

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr Potter, _

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. _

_Term begins on 1__st__ September. We await your owl by no later than 31__st__ July._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Professor McGonagall _

_Deputy Headmistress_

"Wizards?" Harry asked, sceptically. Ryou had never mentioned anything about wizardry being a kind of magick and just the other day she had told him about all of the different types of magick she knew. Harry remembered that list impeccably. There were shadow mages and wiccans and sorcerers. There was no wizards or witches that he or Ryou knew of.

"Wizards." Hagrid confirmed. "Ye're a wizard, Harry, and now ye' can be off ta' Hogwarts te' learn 'ow te' do magic. Ain't tha' exciting, eh?"

Harry stared at him, coolly, trying to decide what his best option would be. He could deem this Hagrid a crazy man and attempt to run, but a fat lot of good that would do him seeing as they were on an island with raging waves between Harry and an escape. He could hide behind the Dursley's but he would rather not go anywhere near the fat, greasy buckets of lard. After assessing the situation, Harry realised that his only option was to hear Hagrid out. He let out a small, defeated groan, then said to Hagrid one word.

"Explain."

"Well, 'ave yeh ever had strange things 'appen to yeh?" Hagrid asked to begin his explanation.

Harry made a mental note to himself that he would never start off an explanation with a question, unless it was rhetorical.

"What kind of strange things?" Harry asked, as a lot of strange things had, indeed, happened to him.

"Things yeh couldn' explain."

"There's a lot of things people can't explain. Please be more specific."

"Well, things like – like levitatin' things and makin' things move withou' touchin' 'em." Hagrid attempted to explain further, obviously slightly surprised that Harry had not jumped at the chance to leave with a complete stranger to go off to learn at a magic school for wizards.

"Yes, those things have happened to me, but it doesn't mean that I'm a wizard."

Hagrid seemed to be getting impatient, now.

"What does it mean, then?" He asked.

"Well, one explanation is that I've spent so much time around Ryou that excess magick from her has 'rubbed off' onto me and built up inside me until such a time that there was so much that it had to be expelled from my body and it did this by creating strange occurrences. Another explanation is that, if wizards actually exist, some wizards were careless and cast spells that just happened to coincide with me being there." Harry explained, calmly, as though the two ideas were the most logical explanation, which they were, but Hagrid didn't seem to look at it that way.

"That's ridiculous, 'Arry! Of course yeh're a wizard. Yeh parents were the grea'est witch and wizard I ever met and yeh're their son. Of course yeh're a wizard! Yeh're famous!" Hagrid said, loudly.

Harry sighed, seeing that he wasn't going to get through to this man and decided that he would just have to go along with it for now.

"Okay, Mr Hagrid. Say for a moment that, hypothetically, I believe that I'm a wizard. Exactly what am I supposed to do with that information?" He asked the hairy man.

Hagrid looked pleased, as though Harry had admitted to actually believing that he was a wizard.

"Well, now, we can go ta' Diagon Alley, ta' get ya' school thin's an' then yah'll come back ta' spend th' res' o' th' summer with ya' Aunt an' Uncle." Hagrid informed him.

"Okay then." Harry conceded. "Take me to this Diagon Alley place."

* * *

><p>Ryou strolled into The Leaky Cauldron. The door slammed behind her. Heads snapped in her direction all at once.<p>

"Aheh." She smiled nervously at the unwanted attention, and gradually everyone turned back to their own conversations.

She walked up to the bar and sat on one of the bar stools. Looking over the bar, she saw the bartender with a hunched over back, no hair and a toothless smile in her direction.

"How can I help ya', ma'am?" He asked, while drying a glass.

"Are you a wizard?" She asked him bluntly, figuring that it was best to be direct rather than dance around the subject.

A look of realisation spread over the bartender's face.

"Aye, I am. M' name's Tom. You a muggleborn, I s'pose?" He replied.

Ryou drew her eyebrows together in confusion. "Muggleborn?"

"Aye, it's what wizard-folk call magic-folk with non-magical parents." Tom said.

"Ah, I see." Ryou's facial expression relaxed at knowing what the word meant. "I, uh, I need to do some shopping for school, but I don't know where to buy the things I need. Can you tell me where I can…?" She trailed off.

"Sure, come with me, ma'am." He walked out from behind the bar and lead her to the back door of the pub.

She stood still and stared. In front of them was a patch of blank, brick wall. She looked to her left. There was nothing there. She looked to her right. There was nothing there, either. Ryou was most definitely not impressed. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently.

"So, where exactly can I buy this stuff? Because if this is some illegal dealings and I have to buy the things in a back alley then I'm leaving." She said.

He shook his head and chuckled, slightly.

"Oh, no, ma'am, it's nothing like that." He assured her, then he drew out what appeared to be a long wooden stick from his pocket and tapped the wall three times in different places.

"What's that?" Ryou asked, narrowing her eyes.

"What? This? It's me' wand, o' course!" Tom told her.

She sighed and slammed her palm against her face. Wands. These wizards used _wands_. How could they use wands? She shook her head. It didn't matter. What mattered was that the brick wall was now moving – cutting in half to display a cobbled road, bustling with people rushing around colourful shops. Her head spun and the brightness of the colours made her feel slightly nauseous, as no matter how artistic she may be, she would never use enough colour in her work to make someone physically sick, like she was now.

Right then and there, she decided that she already did not like these wizards.

* * *

><p>Hagrid chuckled condescendingly.<p>

"Tomorah' 'Arry." He told the boy, before taking a piece of parchment and a quill from one of his huge coat's many pockets and scribbled down a very short note. His handwriting was messy, but Harry could just about make out what Hagrid had written.

_Dear Mr Dumbledore_

_Given Harry his letter. Taking him to buy his things tomorrow. Weather's horrible. Hope you're well._

_Hagrid_

Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down on the sofa that Dudley had scrambled off in fright, as though it was completely normal, as speaking on a telephone.

Harry realised his mouth was open and closed it quickly.

"Where was I?" Hagrid asked.

"He's not going." Vernon seemed to have finally found his voice, though it came out squeakily from an ashen face. He angrily attempted to walk forward into the firelight, but merely managed to plod.

"We swore when we'd took him in we'd put a stop to this rubbish. We swore we'd stamp it out of him-"

"Nobody asked you." Harry cut in, coolly. He had had enough. So, this wizarding stuff was true. His Uncle knew about it, so his Aunt also knew about it. They had kept it from him in the hopes of hiding from the fact that he could perform magic. He narrowed his eyes angrily.

"You knew?" He hissed. "You _knew?_"

He took a step forward and the Dursleys all seemed to shrink away from him and huddle together for safety.

"Knew?" Petunia shrilled "Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that – that _school_ – and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog-spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was – a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"

She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to day all this for years.

"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as – as – _abnormal _– and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"

Harry had gone very white. "Blown… up?" He whispered. "But – but – how?"

Hagrid looked suddenly anxious.

"I never expected this," he said in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble getting' hold of yeh, how mych yeh didn't know."

Harry twitched at this, slightly annoyed that his ignorance of the existence of wizards was warped into being seen as an ignorance of everything. At least, that was what it sounded like. Hagrid continued without noticing or pausing.

"Ah, Harry, I don't know if I'm the right person to tell yeh – but someone's gotta – yeh can't go off to Hogwarts not knowin'." He threw a dirty look at the Durselys. "Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh – mind, I can't tell everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it …"

Hagrid swung his head round and stared at the fire for a few seconds and then said "It begins, I suppose, with – with a person called – but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows-"

"Who?" Harry cut in, getting even more annoyed now, as this man seemed to assume that everything in 'his world' was general knowledge and anyone who didn't know it was seen as rather stupid.

"Well – I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."

"Why not?"

"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went…bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…"

Hagrid gulped but no words came out.

"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested, impressed with himself that he had been this patient with the giant, when it felt like the man was keeping information from him for dramatic effect.

"Nah – can't spell it. All right – _Voldemort_." Hagrid shuddered and Harry restrained himself from rolling his eyes. "Don't make me say it again. Anyway, this – this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too – some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was getting' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches … Terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him – an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of."

If this wasn't a story about his parent's tragic death, Harry would have snorted at the name, though because it was, he didn't, and Hagrid carried on uninterrupted.

"He didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then anyway. Now yer mum and dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy and girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before … probably knew they were too close to Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the dark side."

* * *

><p>If Ryou found out that these wizards had a 'dark side' and presumably also a 'light side' she would be really mad that their magic was entirely out of balance. Or maybe she would just mock them for the rest of eternity with star wars references. Hagrid was still talking so Harry turned his attention back to the giant's story.<p>

"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em… maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Hallowe'en ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' – an' – "

Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.

"Sorry." He said "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad an' nicer people yeh couldn't find – anyway – You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then – an' this is the myst'ry of the thing – he tried to kill you, too. Wanted to make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just like killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on your forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful an' evil curse touches yeh – took care of yer mum and dad an' yer house, even – but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yeh're famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some of the best witches and wizards of the age – the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts – an' you was only a baby an' you lived."

Something very painful was going on inside Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before – and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life – a high, cold, cruel laugh.

* * *

><p>Ryou groaned in frustration and lifted a hand up to her head in an attempt to stop the migraine that was sure to occur at any moment. It had not been a very good day for her. Wizards were definitely not her sort of people. As soon as she had walked into the alley, she had noticed that the people of the wizarding world seemed to be stuck in the middle ages. She was almost surprised that there was no street vendor selling slaves with people going about their business as though it was perfectly normal.<p>

The first thing that Tom the bartender had told her to do was go to a bank called Gringotts and exchange her 'muggle' money for galleons, sickles and knuts. She had managed to get there just fine, but she had dealt with a goblin, because apparently goblins now ran the financial industry, rather than being brought up as warriors with no regard for monetary value of things. This had irked Ryou, somewhat, as all the goblins she knew had been warriors and when she had politely inquired as to why they were working at a bank, the one talking to her became offended and they had ended up in an argument and another goblin had to take over.

The next thing she had done was go to get some clothes that the wizards and witches wore, so she could fit in easily if she decided to come back and visit. The shop she had gone in was called 'Madame Malkin's'. She had no quarrel with the shop, itself, or the people, but what she had been annoyed by was that the only things wizards seemed to wear was robes. And when she had wandered over to the other side of the shop in hopes of finding something other than robes, all she found was an aisle labelled 'dress robes' which were, essentially, long formal dresses and suits. She had eventually decided on a simple light blue robe, a red cloak and a black formal dress. (She refused to call them dress robes.)

After buying clothes, Ryou had gone to check out the book shop. It would be the best place to learn about this newly found branch of magic. Again, she had no quarrel with the shop or the people, but with the content. She had picked up several books and flipped through them, but they all seemed completely ignorant on things like muggles, alchemy, other branches of magic, other magical races and more. Muggles were not stupid, actually it seemed that the wizards were more stupid. The could not grasp simple science or technology. Alchemy wasn't a magic and it didn't mainly deal in gold and raising people back from the dead. Alchemy was a rare kind of science and was used to fix things or transform objects into other objects, as long as they had the same subject matter. Wizards and witches seemed to think that there was no other branches of magic in humans or that they had died off long ago and were no longer known. And she didn't even want to get started on what the books said about other races.

She had, after much consideration, bought some books that seemed trustworthy. They were mainly books that instructed how to do spells or make potions, rather than ones that mentioned 'facts' as wizards saw them. She also bought a couple of books about wizard law and wizard culture, as the first thing she always did when learning about a new society was look up their culture and their laws.

Ryou had sat down for a few minutes and flicked through her new books, then headed off to the apothecary to get some ingredients to create some of the potions that she was interested in doing and she was sure that being in that shop surrounded by slimy creatures and smelly substances was the most pleasant experience she had had today. She bought a cauldron, too.

In the present, Ryou shook her head. It was time to go to the wand shop. She didn't know whether she would qualify for a wand or not, being a shadow mage, rather than a witch, but she was going to try any way. She might as well do it, just to remain inconspicuous. She didn't really want one. They really were pathetic.

In her musings, Ryou didn't realise that her feet were carrying her forward, until she looked up and saw a huge sign above a shop with the word 'Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands Since 382 BC'. She peered in the window. The inside looked dusty and abandoned, but when she pushed on the door, it opened, so she could only assume that they were open.

She squinted her eyes, trying to see through the darkness behind the counter. She could sense another's presence and wanted to determine if they were a threat.

"Hello" said a voice from the darkness, then a silver haired man stepped into the light, where she could see him "I am Ollivander, you are looking, I presume, for a wand?"

Ryou twitched. She already didn't like this man.

"Yes."

"You are not a witch that I can tell. Then, I can only assume that you are in control of a branch of magic that supposedly died out centuries ago."

Ryou twitched again. She definitely did not like this man.

"Yes."

He just nodded, showing no signs of shock or surprise at the fact that he was dealing with someone who his people believed had died out.

"I will have to find something very special for you, then." He told her, withdrawing several boxes from their shelves and taking the lid off one of them and offering it to her to take. "Try this one. Veela hair and Alder wood."

She took it out the box and flicked her wrist slightly, feeling foolish that she had to go through this just to get a ridiculous tool to control magic. Ollivanders hair set on fire. He calmly put it out with his own wand and muttered that it wouldn't do. Over the course of an hour, they went through almost every wand in the shop until Ollivander finally sighed.

"It seems that your magic can not be harnessed by wands. Perhaps a staff will be big enough to let the power through." He suggested.

"Uh- Okay, but can you make it… inconspicuous. Nothing over the top and embarrassing."

"I will but I will have to tailor it myself and send it to you by owl post, as I have no staffs in store currently."  
>"Um, that's fine, I suppose."<p>

Ryou gave him her address and left, hoping to never come in to contact with the creepy-looking and creepy-acting man.

* * *

><p>Hagrid watched Harry, sadly.<p>

"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders."

Just who was this Dumbledore and why did he think he could boss everyone around? Harry was getting tired of him already and he had never met him.

"Brought yeh ter his lot."  
>"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped, he had almost forgotten that the Dursley's were there. Uncle Vernon seemed to have gained back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.<p>

"Now you listen here, boy-"

But Hagrid cut him off, taking his large coat off and throwing it to Harry, who staggered under it's weight.

"Here yeh can kip under that. Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, there migh' still be some dormice in it."

Harry nodded, thankful that he didn't have only a thin, raggedy blanket to sleep under anymore.

"Did you go to Hogwarts, Hagrid?" Harry asked him, curious about whether the man went to the school that he seemed to love so much.

"Yeh, but I was expelled."

"Why were you expelled?"  
>"It's getting' late and we got lots to do tomorrow." Said Hagrid, loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer school books an' that. Let's get some sleep, eh?"<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So, I'm back. School is out and all of a sudden, I got the urge to write more of this fanfiction, and who am I to fight my urges?**

**So here's a new upload for you on Christmas Eve as a slightly early xmas present from me!**

**Happy xmas/hannukah/holiday/whatever you won't get offended by**

**Hope you enjoy the holiday season, anyway!**

**And review, as a xmas present for me? Please?**

**Edited to add line breaks, otherwise it didn't make any sense! Sorry for the false alarm! x**


	4. Diagon Alley

**Summary: What if Ryou and Harry were best friends, before he knew about Hogwarts. What if Ryou could wield Shadow Magick, herself? What if Ryou was a powerful shadow mage? What if she was there to help Harry throughout his years at Hogwarts, but at a distance?**

**Warnings: Fem!Ryou, AU, None of the original HP couples, takes a lot of text from original Potter book, long chapters, sticks almost to the original story with a lot of changes, Ron-bashing, Dumbledore-bashing.**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!**

**A/N: OVER A MONTH! I'M SO SORRY! I'M SO BEHIND ON MY WRITING! **

**But I have an excuse! I swear. I had exams throughout January and spent my time revising for them or catching up on sleep and working on this when I could! I'm really, really sorry and I hope you enjoy it!  
><strong>

**yakari school: I'm glad you liked the chapter and I hope you had a good holiday season, too!**

**Triad Skyline: Thanks! I think it's going to be interesting too…otherwise I wouldn't be writing it, right? Anyway, here's the update and sorry that it's not that soon!**

**High Reacher: Thankyou! I really don't know what else to say for this review, except that it was my favourite chapter to write so far and it was the one I improvised on the most.**

**Darkanomaly: I completely agree that Ron is a self-absorbed, tactless git and that character bashing can lead to ranting and that can lead to bad writing, but I will attempt to prevent ranting. Would it put you off the story if there was Dumbledore bashing in there that didn't detract from the story or lead to rants? You see, I don't like Dumbledore because he left Harry with the Dursleys for years without checking up on him…leaving him on a DOORSTEP, even though it was October and it would have been cold. Also, why is Dumbledore up in everybody's business? *Hey, these people who work for my secret organisation have just died, guess I should take their son and leave him with these magic hating relatives of his even though a trusted confidant told me not to.***

**Okay, I'm done now. I apologise. That kind of ranting won't make it into the actual story. I hope you continue reading!**

**(I'm just mad today, I feel like ranting in general, not just about characters)**

**Chapter Four**

**Diagon Alley**

* * *

><p>Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes tight shut.<p>

"It was a dream." He told himself firmly. "I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was signed up to go to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes, I'll be at home in my cupboard."

Like hell, wizards exist. Ryou would have mentioned them if they did, or did she not know about them? That was ridiculous in Harry's world – Ryou knew everything there was to know about any sort of magic, so why would she completely ignore a singular branch of it.

There was a sudden loud tapping noise.

"And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door," Harry thought, his heart sinking at the thought that he was not part of a magical community after all, but he still didn't open his eyes. It had been a pretty good dream.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up."

He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid, himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.

Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy that he was involved in a magical world – even if it wasn't the same one that Ryou was part of. He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered on to the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.

"You really shouldn't do that." Harry told the owl, calmly "It's not a very polite thing to do.

The owl stopped attacking the coat and blinked at Harry in an angry manner. The owl then snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on salvaging Hagrid's coat.

Harry decided that it was time to wake Hagrid up.

"Hagrid." He said loudly. "There's an owl-"

"Pay him." Hagrid grunted into the sofa. Harry frowned. Cutting him off in the middle of a sentence was quite a rude thing to do. He shrugged it off, he knew what to do now anyway, but … why would he need to pay a bird?

"Why?"

"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets." Hagrid told him.

Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing _but _pockets – bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, mint humbugs, tea-bags … finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.

"Give him five knuts." Said Hagrid sleepily.

"Knuts?"

"The little bronze ones."

Harry counted out five of the small bronze coins and the owl held out its leg so he could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then it flew off through the open window.

Hagrid yawned loudly, stretched and sat up.

Harry's eye twitched. If he was going to get up anyway, why did he make Harry pay the owl that was delivering _Hagrid's _newspaper.

"Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."

Harry held up a hand to stop Hagrid.

"Hold up, I told you that I wanted to see this Diagon alley place – I don't recall saying anything about wanting to actually _go _to this magic school which I've only just heard of and have apparently been enrolled in since birth by my parents. I want to check out 'your world' before I make any decisions." He told the giant man.

Hagrid's eyebrows furrowed. "All right." He agreed, reluctantly.

"So, Hagrid, are there any other schools in your world?" It struck him as odd that there was only one opportunity of schooling in an entire world of people.

* * *

><p>Ryou was ready to leave. In fact, she was ready to leave several hours ago, but she had things to do in between then and now. Then, something caught her eye. In her peripheral vision she found a dull greyish colour amongst all the bright reds, greens and oranges.<p>

She snapped her neck to the direction of the dull object. It was a rugged wooden sign painted with spiky black lettering 'Knockturn Alley'. She spun straight around and walked up to the sign and peered around the twisting street where the cobbles seemed to get darker as the street went on. Knockturn Alley was a lot creepier than Diagon Alley was, but it still seemed a lot more bearable than the infernally cheery and chipper place that she was currently in. That helped her make her decision. She was going to explore Knockturn Alley. It would be fun to see the shady side of the wizarding world, rather than just what it appeared like on the outside to strangers and visitors to their world. She needed to know everything before she would let her friend join some suspicious, secret underground society. If it was dangerous then she would either force him not to join it or go with him to protect him. She wasn't about to let Harry get hurt – for anyone.

She walked forward confidently into the shadowy alley, carrying her heavy bags filled with new and so-called 'magical' objects. The bags rustled loudly, drawing attention to her. She glared down at them and held back the urge to hush them. They were doing this on purpose to make her seem foolish in front of these strangers! She knew something that bright and cheerful while still being inanimate had to be evil! There was no doubt about it. How could they not be? Some of the bags were pink – the most evil colour ever created. Anyone who liked it had to be evil, let alone some one who actually used it for their shop. What was wrong with blue? It seemed that none of these wizards' shops used blue. Blue was one of her three favourite colours. A nice sky blue or turquoise would have been a pleasant break from all the bright colours that were blasting in her face and most likely damaging her retinas.

Ryou glanced around the new place. It was a lot less bright, but a lot more dirty. The people seemed suspicious and the shops were all dark and gloomy. From one look, Ryou could tell that this was the place she would be visiting the most in the wizarding world. Though the place was dodgy, sometimes Ryou preferred to deal in dodgy places with dodgy people rather than partake in pleasant but plastic chit-chat with people that society deemed 'acceptable'. Sometimes, it was just a lot more interesting – and fun too. So, she decided to take a look around.

* * *

><p>"Well, it's th' on'y wizarding school in Britain." Hagrid said.<p>

"So there _are _more?" Harry pushed.

"Yeh, bu', like I said, none in Britain."

"Tell me about them."

Hagrid looked startled, as though he had not expected to be quizzed on other schools, but on just Hogwarts, itself. Harry didn't see the point in that though – learning about just one single opportunity of magical schooling when he could hear about them all and decide on the one that he most liked the sound of.

"Well, uh, first there's Durmstrang, they're pretty secr'tive 'bout 'emselves. Don' really trus' anyone else, see? The others Beauxbatons, they're in France an' are rumoured to 'ave a very beau'iful palace – not as great as 'ogwarts, bu' still fine, I s'pose."

"Now will you please tell me what's so great about Hogwarts?" Harry inquired, politely, as it seemed that Hagrid seemed to be attempting to persuade Harry that Hogwarts was better than the other two schools that he mentioned without a second thought.

"What's so great abou' 'owarts?" Hagrid asked, shocked "why, it's on'y the best wizardin' school in all o' Europe!"

"Has anyone ever clarified that?"

"Eh?"

"I mean…has anyone actually observed all of the schools in Europe, then gone 'yep, Hogwarts is the best one'." Harry expanded.

"I can' say tha' they 'ave." Hagrid seemed to be more confused by the moment.

"Then, I'm afraid that I can't take your word for it." Harry replied, cooly. If there was no actual comparison between the schools, he and Ryou would have to do it themselves…but…would Ryou be able to go? They were supposed to be wizarding schools after all and Ryou was a shadow mage. Harry was sure that it was an entirely different concept and branch of magick. Ryou _had_ to go with him, though! He couldn't do it without her! She was his best friend and they had done everything together for the past five years and he didn't see why it should change now just because he was invited to some sort of magick school which had a different type of magick than Ryou did.

"Now, 'Arry, don' be like tha'-" Hagrid started, but Harry cut across him.

"Never mind, just show me this Diagon Alley place…please?" He added, so as not to seem rude, although he knew that he had already failed that.

Hagrid nodded and the two went outside and clambered into the little boat, disregarding the Dursleys completely as they sat there shaking with bags under their eyes, probably from being kept awake all night in fear.

* * *

><p>Ryou was in Knockturn Alley and had found a bookshop. It looked old and creepy and it was covered in cobwebs and dust and the light was too dim to read anything properly, so she had to strain her eyes. She still liked this place better than the bright and cheery bookshop in Diagon Alley. What was it called again. Oh yes, Flourish and Blotts. She didn't know the name of the bookshop she was currently in, but she would have to have a look at the sign on her way out because although the shop, itself, was practically crumbling around her and the shop keeper was giving her the stink-eye, she rather liked this place. It had an aura of ancient magick that had washed over her as soon as she had stepped through the door and the books seemed just as ancient as the magick in the air.<p>

Ryou traced her finger lightly over the spines of the leather-bound books in a section labelled 'Ancient Rites and Rituals', before plucking an interesting-looking one from the shelf and flicking through it, running her eyes over the chapter titles (_Origins Of Rituals, Resurrection Rituals, Religious Rituals, etc)_ and then returning to the very front of the book and skimming over the first, quite short chapter titled _'Introduction.'_ The book seemed to be interesting and would probably be informative to her, so she tucked it under her arm and, after a quick, cursory glance at the rest of the ritual books before _deeming_ them unimportant to her at this moment, Ryou found another section. This section was labelled _'Miscellaneous/Second Hand.'_

Ryou picked up a book that seemed as though it was hundreds of years old while still seeming as though it had never been used, perhaps never even picked up before that very moment. She turned it over slowly, inspecting it and finding nothing strange or unique about it, except the fact that it didn't have a title, just a lime green cover which looked like leather but also scaly at the same time.

Flipping it open, Ryou began to read.

* * *

><p>"Wait." Harry said, sitting up abruptly straight "I don't have any money to pay for anything."<br>Hagrid laughed. "Don't worry about that" he said, scratching his head "D'yeah think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"

"I suppose wizards have a different way of doing that, too?"

"Eh? No, no wizards 'ave a bank – Gringotts. Run by Goblins."

"Goblins?" Harry asked, surprised. How many more magical things could he take in just a couple of days?

"Yeh – so yeh'd be mad ter try and rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want to keep safe – 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly and didn't notice when Harry sighed in exasperation at the mention of Dumbledore " He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you – getting' things from Gringotts – knows he can trust me, see. Got everythin'? Come on, then?"

"How did you get to the hut, anyway? There wasn't any other boat there."

"Flew."

"_flew?"_

"Yeah, but I ain't s'posed to use magic now I've got yeh."

Hagrid pulled out a newspaper and Harry read the large blaring title off the front page 'The Daily Prophet'. Harry had learnt from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while reading the newspaper and he had no idea if Hagrid would be as dangerous as Uncle Vernon was when interrupted.

"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual." Hagrid muttered, turning the page.

"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked before he could stop himself.

"'Course," said Hagrid "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister o' course-"

_Of course._

"-but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."

Harry decided to put off asking about Dumbledore in favour of asking exactly what the Ministry of Magic does.

"Well," replied Hagrid "their main job is to keep it from the muggles that there's still witches and wizards up an' down the country."  
>"Why?"<p>

Hagrid could tell that this boat ride was going to be a long one.

* * *

><p>Ryou had been in the book shop in Knockturn Alley longer than she had spent in Diagon Alley all together and she still wasn't bored of it. In fact, she was thoroughly enjoying it. She had flopped down onto the floor in a remote corner and began pulling books off the shelves and flicking through them to find interesting ones. So far she had accumulated a large, tottering pile of books that sat next to her and had gained several strange looks from passers-by. After around the hundredth person who walked by stared at her as though she was some sort of freak show, Ryou sighed and slammed her current book shut, adding it to the pile next to her before standing up and attempting to pick up the lot. Using all of her strength, she managed to hold up the pile with both arms, though her legs were trembling and the pile wobbled precariously. The thought that she couldn't possibly carry all of the books anywhere didn't occur to her until she had put one foot forward and let the heavy books spill out onto the floor.<p>

"Hey, you want some help carrying those?" A voice came from behind her. Ryou turned around from where she had gotten on the floor to pick everything up. What she saw when she turned around was a boy with platinum blonde hair, tanned skin and lavender eyes. She smiled at him. He seemed friendly enough.

"Yes, please."

He lowered himself onto the floor next to her and began picking up the heaviest - looking books. That was so sweet of him. Ryou set to work picking up as many books as she could, so the boy wouldn't end up carrying all of her things - that would just be rude. With the both of them working on it, the books were all picked up in no time.

They stood up and Ryou realised that her load was much lighter than before. It had more than halved. That must have been because the boy had taken the thicker ones.

The thought reminded her of something.

"Hey, what's your name?"

The boy smiled sheepishly. "Heh, sorry about that. You must think I'm really rude, huh? My name's Marik. Marik Ishtar." He said "I'd shake your hand but mine are a bit occupied."

Ryou laughed. "Well, Marik Marik Ishtar, my name is Ryou. Ryou Bakura."

"Nice to meet you, Ryou Ryou Bakura."

The two eleven year olds grinned at each other and dumped the books onto the counter, ignoring the death glare of the shop keeper.

They could both tell that this new friendship would be a wonderful one.

* * *

><p>Harry and Hagrid had reached the station and had endured stares that had walked through the town to the station. Harry couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid over twice as tall as everyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary objects, like parking meters and saying loudly, "see that, Harry? Things these muggles dream up, eh?"<p>

People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary yellow circus tent.

"Still got yer letter, Harry?" He asked as he counted stitches.

Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.

"Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list in there of everything yeh need."

Harry unfolded the second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before and read:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Uniform_

_First-year students will require:_

_Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

_One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

_One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

_One winter cloak (black, silver fastening)_

_Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry nametags._

_Set Books_

_All students should have a copy of each of the following:_

_The Standard Book Of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk_

_A History Of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot_

_Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling_

_A Beginner's Guide To Transfiguration by Emeric Switch_

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore_

_Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger_

_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander_

_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble_

_Other Equiptment_

_1 wand_

_1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

_1 set glass or crystal phials_

_1 telescope_

_1 set brass scales_

_Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad._

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

This list made Harry very curious.

"Can we get all this in London?"

"If yeh know where the go."

* * *

><p>Marik and Ryou were in the pet shop in Diagon Alley. Once Ryou had bought the books, Marik had helped her carry the large amount of bags and they had gone to the cheerier alley that was somehow less crowded than the shady one, when they had spotted the shop and had decided to check it out. ("Well, I wanted to get a pet to keep me company..." "I suppose sister won't be too mad with me if it's cute...")<p>

They had cooed over the cute kittens and were awed at the stranger animals, such as the large turtle with jewels encrusted in it's shell. Eventually, Marik had settled on an adorable tiny kitten with huge green eyes and fluffy white fur, but Ryou was still deciding.

"How about that one?" Marik said, pointing at a fat green puff of unidentified fur.

"Nah."

"That one?"

"No."

Marik would have complained about how long the white haired girl was taking but he was genuinely enjoying himself with her. He pointed again, randomly.

"That one."

"Ew, no."

Marik blinked and looked at what he was pointing at. It was what seemed to be a large brown slug with several extra antennae. He scrunched up his nose and nodded in agreement and she giggled at the action.

"You're not even paying attention any more, are you?" Ryou asked, amusedly.

Marik rubbed the back of his head, blushing, then mumbled out an apology.

Ryou shook her head and grinned. "It's alright – I am taking quite a while. I think I know what I want now."

She walked over to a tank on the other side of the shop. Marik spied what was in the tank and froze.

_Oh no._

* * *

><p>Harry had never been to London before, but it was obvious Hagrid had. He seemed to know where he was going, but was not used to going the ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.<p>

"I don't know how muggles manage without magic." He said as they climbed a broken-down escalator which led up to a bustling road lined with shops. Harry rolled his eyes. It seemed to him that wizards were just lazy and he sent thanks up to the God Anubis that Ryou didn't use her magick to be lazy.

Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily and all Harry had to do was stand close behind him. They passed a large variety of shops, but it seemed that this was just an ordinary street with ordinary people. Though he was giving Hagrid a bit of a hard time, Harry decided that he was likable and trustworthy enough to follow.

"This is it." Said Hagrid. "The Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."

It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry would have probably missed it. Nobody so much as glanced at it as they scurried by. It was as though they couldn't see it and Harry strongly suspected that they couldn't.

For such a supposedly famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old barman, who was quite bald and looked like a gummy walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everybody seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him and the barman reached for a glass and said "the usual, Hagrid?"  
>"Not today, Tom, I'm on official 'Ogwarts business." Hagrid replied, clapping his hand to Harry's shoulder and almost knocking him over in the process.<p>

"Good Lord," said Tom, peering at Harry "is this – can this be – ?

The entire Leaky Cauldron had immediately gone silent and still.

"Bless my soul, what an honour." Said the barman "Harry Potter – what an honour." He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed towards Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.

"Welcome back, Mr Potter, welcome back."

Harry didn't know what to say and was slightly worried. After that it seemed as though the entire pub was hurrying to shake his hand and a few people shook it more than once. A pale young man made his way forward very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.

"Professor Quirrel!" Said Hagrid "Harry, Professor Quirrel will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."

"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrel, grasping Harry's hand "C-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."

"What sort of magic do you teach Professor Quirrel?"

"D-Defence Against the D-Dark Arts." Muttered Professor Quirrel, as though he would rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought of it.

The others in The Leaky Cauldron wouldn't let Quirrel keep Harry to himself for long, and soon enough they had him swarmed again.

After what felt to Harry like years, he and Hagrid managed to fight their way through the crowd and get to the other side of the pub and out of the back door.

"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh everyone in our world knows yeh name!" Hagrid grinned "Yeh famous, 'Arry. Even Professor Quirrel was tremblin' ter meet yeh – mind you, he's usually tremblin'."

"Is he always that nervous?" If he was, Harry didn't want him as a teacher.

"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took the year off ter get some first hand experience… They say he met vampires in the Black Forest and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag – never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject – now, where's me umbrella?"

Hagrid was counting the bricks in the wall above the dustbin.

"Three up … Two across …" He muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry."

He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he had touched quivered – it wriggled – in the middle a small hole appeared – it grew wider and wider – a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway on to a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of site.

"Welcome." Said Hagrid "to Diagon Alley."

* * *

><p>Marik as far back as he dared, while Ryou cooed over the animal in the tank. The animal that the tank encaged was a large, white snake with blood red eyes. The shop attendant walked up to Ryou.<p>

"Hi," she said chirpily "I see you've found one of our more interesting animals. This species of snake has yet to be identified and I must warn you, it is extremely dangerous. It is also very violent. I'm afraid that your friend has the right idea in keeping his distance."

Ryou jolted in surprise and looked back at Marik, then laughed and gestured for him to come forwards.

"Don't be silly, Marik, he won't hurt you."

"I apologise, Ma'am, but you seem to have misheard me – "

Ryou waved the shop assistant off.

"Don't worry about it! He's a sweetheart, really."  
>The shop assistant frowned at her "with all due respect, Ma'am, how do you know?"<p>

Ryou smiled gently. "He's an old friend." She turned to Marik. "His name is Diabound. I've known him my entire life."

Marik's eyes widened. That was why he felt such companionship with Ryou and such a strange aura coming from the snake. Ryou was a Shadow Mage and the snake – Diabound – was her Duel Spirit!

This didn't change anything. At least, he hoped it didn't change anything. He could tell that he would like having Ryou for a friend and he didn't want to lose that. A small hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his thoughts and Marik turned to see Ryou grinning at him.

"Come on, let's go, I've paid." Marik noticed that Diabound was now wrapped around Ryou's neck and almost asked if that wasn't dangerous before remembering that Duel Spirits would never harm their masters.

They walked down the cobbled street until they came to an ice-cream shop, with tables outside, named Florean Fortescue's. They flopped down onto one of the tables and dropped Ryou's bags, then ordered mint chocolate chip ice-cream for Marik and plain chocolate ice-cream for Ryou after she had found out that wizards didn't have Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavoured ice-cream and pouted for half an hour.

While they were waiting for their ice-cream, Marik and Ryou indulged in typical 'new-friend' conversations. They learnt several things about each other. Their favourite colours (Ryou-Blue, Marik-Lavender), favourite food (Ryou – cheese toasties, Marik – cheese and pineapple pizza) and their hobbies (Ryou – Painting, sketching, skateboarding: Marik – Writing, playing with spare parts of engines and motorcycles, sewing.)

Marik blushed hotly at the last one and Ryou covered her mouth to prevent a giggle, hoping that Marik wouldn't think she was making fun of him and blushed, herself. With extremely good timing, the ice-cream was delivered to their table. They smiled and thanked the waiter and dug in.

Ryou moaned in delight, slowly pulling the spoon out of her mouth, making sure that she got every last lick of the chocolate flavoured goodness. "This is amaziiinnngg."

Marik looked on amused and put his own spoon in his mouth. "Glad to see you're enjoying it." He teased and watched as Ryou's eyes snapped open and she went red. Marik was quite happy with this, as he didn't want to be the only one being humiliated as he seemed to be blushing much more than usual since he had met this girl. He had to wonder why…

* * *

><p>As they stepped into the archway, Harry looked back over his shoulder and watched as it shrunk, then closed off completely. He looked around and found a cheerful cobbled street in front of him. He inspected a cauldron shop, and then turned to Hagrid with a frown on his face.<p>

"Hagrid? I don't have any money." Harry said.

Hagrid chuckled. "'Course yeh do, 'Arry, yeh've got a family vault at Gringotts." He informed Harry, gesturing with a large arm to an enormous, fancy-looking marble building.

The two walked into Gringotts and Harry eyed two strange little creatures standing guard outside of it, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold.

"Yeah, tha's a goblin." Said Hagrid quietly. The goblin was only about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside and Harry felt compelled to bow back, but before he could, Hagrid had ushered him inside and they faced a second large set of doors with words engraved on them:

_Enter stranger, but take heed,_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed,_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn,_

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_A treasure that was never yours,_

_Thief, you have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure there._

"Yeh'd be mad the try and rob it." Hagrid told him. Harry just wondered to himself what Ryou would do if faced with this poem – take it as a challenge most likely, knowing her.

Another pair of goblins bowed them through the second doors and Harry, once again, wanted to bow back. He wasn't sure why. Hadn't Ryou mentioned to him once how goblins were warriors? Maybe she had also mentioned that they deserved respect and it was his subconscious remembering what she said.

About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in ledgers, weighing coins on brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry approached the counter.

"Morning," said Hagrid to a goblin that didn't look as busy as the rest. "We've come ter take some mone outta mister 'Arry Potter's safe."

"You have his key, sir?" the goblin asked, giving Hagrid a death glare for interrupting his very important time doing absolutely nothing. Hagrid ignored this and carried on.

"Got it here somewhere." He said, searching his pockets and emptying their contents onto the counter, scattering a handful of mouldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose and scowled even further at Hagrid – a fate Harry thought would be impossible.

"Ah, here we are." Hagrid said, finally withdrawing a tiny golden key

The goblin took it off him and inspected it closely before nodding.

"That seems to be in order, sir."

"An' I've also got a letter 'ere, from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid, thrusting his chest out importantly "It's abou' the you-know-what in vault seven hundred an' thirteen."

The goblin read the letter carefully as Harry thought to himself that it was as though Hagrid _wanted_ Harry to try and find out what was in the vault, since they were being so secretive about it right in front of him.

"Very well," said the goblin, handing the letter back "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"

Griphook was yet another goblin. They probably didn't employ other species. Hagrid crammed the dog biscuits back into his pockets, and then he and Harry followed Griphook towards one of the doors leading off the hall.

Since Hagrid obviously wanted Harry to ask so badly, Harry thought he might as well – there was no harm in asking.

"What's you-know-what in vault seven hundred and thirteen?"

"Can' tell yeh tha'" Hagrid replied, mysteriously, as Harry suspected he would. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore trusted me. More'n me job's worth the tell yeh tha'."

Griphook held the door open for them and Harry was surprised to find, not more marble, but a narrow stone passageway that sloped steeply downwards. There were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling towards them. They climbed in and were off.

* * *

><p>"MARIK!" a worried feminine voice shouted out of nowhere "There you are! What have I told you about disappearing like that? Especially in such places as Diagon Alley!"<p>

A tanned woman with long black hair and blue eyes ran up to Marik and wrapped him in a hug. A tall man with a ponytail followed behind her more calmly, but still looked rather relieved that Marik was safe.

"I was so worried." The woman murmured stroking Marik's hair.

Marik rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Aheh, sorry, Ishizu, but – well – I –"

Ishizu turned stern. "Don't give me 'buts', why did you wonder off?"

"It was my fault." A soft, calm voice interrupted them. Ishizu and the man that followed her spun around and faced the girl that Marik was sitting with. They had been so worried that they hadn't noticed her before.

"I was lost in Knockturn Alley and Marik showed me the way out. I wanted to thank him so I asked him to get ice-cream with me. I'm Ryou, by the way, and you are?"

"Oh, how rude of us," said Ishizu. "I'm Marik's older sister, Ishizu Ishtar and this is our brother, Rishid." She gestured to the man and Rishid gave a silent nod in acknowledgement.

"It's nice to meet you" Ryou smiled at them.

Ishizu beamed. "It's nice to meet you too! Marik doesn't make friends too easily, so it's wonderful when he does."

Ryou grinned back at her, then, when Ishizu wasn't paying attention, she sent a wink to Marik. She had successfully diverted the wrath of Marik's siblings from their course and engaged them in a conversation made up of pleasantries and nothing more.

They chatted for a while more until Ishizu rose from where she had thrown herself next to Marik. "I'm afraid we must be going now, but it was lovely speaking to you." She told Ryou.

"Likewise."

And with that, the three walked away, leaving Ryou at the table in the ice-cream parlour by herself. As they walked away, without either of his siblings noticing, Marik looked back and waved at her in goodbye with a small smile on his face.

* * *

><p>Harry, Hagrid and Griphook jolted to a stop. Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke billowed out and, as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins, columns of silver and heaps of little bronze Knuts.<p>

"All yours," smiled Hagrid.

It was incredible. Harry had never had this much in his life. The Dursleys could not have known about this or they would have had it from him faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep? All of that time Harry had owned a small fortune, buried deep under London.

Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag, and then explained that there were seventeen sickles to a galleon and twenty-nine knuts to a sickle. Once they were finished, Hagrid turned to Griphook.

"Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"

"One speed only" stated Griphook.

The air became colder and colder and colder as they hurtled deeper and deeper and deeper underground. They rattled over an underground ravine and Harry leant over the side to see what was at the dark bottom and he thought he caught a glimpse of something that looked like flames, but Hagrid grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him into the cart.

Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.

"Stand back" said Griphook, drawing himself up in an important manner. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.

"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that," he informed them with a rather nasty grin "they'd be sucked through the door and trapped there."

"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.

"About once every ten years." Griphook said, the nasty grin growing ever the wider.

Harry was certain that something extraordinary would be inside this vault – fabulous jewels at the least – however, he was in for disappointment. As he leant forward to see what was inside, he thought at first that it was empty, until he noticed the grubby little package wrapped in brown paper at the centre of the room lying on the floor.

Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry was curious about what was inside the package, but decided not to ask.

"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.

* * *

><p>One insane cart-ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. He had never had money before in his life so he didn't know what to do with it, while at the same time knowing that he wanted to spend it on everything. All he really knew was that he was holding more money than Dudley had ever been given at one point in his life.<p>

"Might as well get yer uniform." Said Hagrid, nodding towards _Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions_. "Listen Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts."

Harry did not want to be left alone in a strange world, but Hagrid did still look a bit sick and it would give Harry an opportunity to look around without being under somebody's watchful eye, so he agreed. Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone and nervous.

Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed in all mauve. She was also the first person of the day, goblins excepted, that did not gush over the fact that Harry Potter was in her presence. He decided that he rather liked her.

"Hogarts, dear?" she asked, when Harry was about to speak. "Got the lot here – another young man being fitted just now, in fact."

She lead Harry nearer to the back of the shop where a boy with a pale, pointed face and blonde, slicked back hair was standing on a footstool while another witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin indicated for Harry to stand on the stool next to him, slipped a long robe over his heas and began to pin it to the correct length.

"Hullo." Said the boy. "I'm Draco Malfoy and I'm planning on defying my parents' prejudice and making some muggle-born friends without letting my father or mother find out." He had a bored, drawling voice, but Harry was never one to judge people on the friendliness of their voices. Uncle Vernon's voice, for example, when he wasn't talking to Harry, was booming and cheerfully pleasant. While Aunt Petunia's voice shrieked at Harry, she took upon a very motherly tone with Dudley.

"Nice to meet you, Draco, I'm Harry." He would put off telling Draco his last name for as long as possible. "What do you mean by the prejudices of your parents?" He asked, tilting his head, confused.

Draco looked shocked. "Don't tell me that you don't _know_."

"I don't. I was –uh – muggle-raised."

"That makes sense. It is a prejudice pureblood wizards have that they are better than wizards that are muggle-born." He explained, not seeming too excited to get into it.

"Ah, okay. What's a pureblood?" Harry couldn't help it. He was a curious person.

Draco raised an eyebrow sceptically, as though not believing Harry didn't know, however he answered anyway.

"A pureblood is a magical person who has entirely wizards and witches in their family tree and no muggles." Something caught the blonde boy's attention. "I say, look at that man!" he said suddenly, nodding towards the window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice-creams to show he couldn't come in.

"That's Hagrid." Harry said "he works at Hogwarts – he's the gamekeeper."

"Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"

"My parents are dead."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Draco thought about it for a minute before saying "what's your surname, anyway?"

Before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said "That's you done, my dear." Harry stepped down from the stool, gratefully. He rather liked Draco but he didn't want another person fussing over him because of his name.

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts." Said Draco.

"Yeah" Harry nodded his head. "I'll see you there.

Hagrid and Harry shared a peaceful silence as they wandered down the street, licking their ice-creams. They bought his books, cauldron and potions ingredients.

"Now all tha's left is yeh wand an' I still haven' got yeh a birthday present."

Harry coughed, embarrassed. "You don't have to-"

"I know I don't have to. I'll tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad – toad's went out of fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at – an' I don' like cats – they make me sneeze. I'll get yeh an owl. All the kids wan' owls, dead useful, carry yer post an' everythin'."

Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage, with a snowy white owl sleeping inside it with her head under her wing. He thanked Hagrid profusely and several times over.

Hagrid just chuckled and brushed him off.

"Jus' Ollivander's left now – on'y place fer wands." Hagrid said.

* * *

><p>Ryou's eyes widened as she saw messy black hair making its way through the crowd. It was Harry, she was sure of it.<p>

"Harry!" She yelled "Hey, Harry!"

Harry stopped in his tracks and turned around with wide astonished eyes, before the emerald green iris' settled on Ryou and became relaxed. He grinned and waved an excited hand at Ryou, and she ran to catch up with him, noting that he, too, was carrying a large amount of shopping bags.

"Hey Ryou! Guess what? I'm a wizard which is apparently why weird things happen around me and I have a bunch of spell books and a cauldron and potion ingredients now." Harry chirped "why didn't you tell me about wizards, Ryou?"

"Didn't know about them." Ryou replied. "I only found out about them because I went to your house to find out where you'd gone and found the living room overflowing with letters to you about some magic wizarding school that you've been invited to."

Harry grinned. "Good, I don't need to explain anything then." Then his grin faltered. Ryou might not like the wizarding world as much as he did and might judge it dangerous. Ryou was his only friend – he didn't want to lose her.

Ryou sighed. "After I explored a bit, I decided that wizards and witches don't pose much of a threat and most of them are of good-will." Ryou said, thinking back to Marik, the boy she had met earlier that day.

Harry beamed and his eyes sparkled. "We're going to get me a wand now."

For the first time, Ryou noticed a giant, hair figure standing next to Harry.

"Who's this?" She asked Harry "Don't you know it's rude to not introduce two acquaintances that have never met before?"

"Okay, okay. " He turned to Hagrid. "Hagrid, this is Ryou, Ryou, Hagrid."

Ryou pouted as they walked into Ollivanders. She had already been in here once and she hadn't liked it one bit. It was dark and dusty and Ollivander was creepy.

Harry, however, couldn't have been more excited. This was what he had been looking forward to – a magic wand. When they entered the shop, Harry felt strangely as though they had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of brand new questions which had just occurred to him and looked instead at the boxes, of which there had to be thousands, piled up haphazardly to the very ceiling, as though they had been quickly stuffed back into place in under five minutes. For no reason, whatsoever, the hair on the back of Harry's neck prickled. The very dust and silence in the shop seemed to tingle with magic.

Ryou sneezed loudly and the spell of silence was broken.

"Good afternoon" said a soft voice and Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped too, because there was a cracking noise and he got quickly off the chair that he had perched himself on.

Ollivander took no notice and eyed Ryou cautiously and slightly suspiciously, as though he wished for her to leave and never come back. She noticed and held up both her hands, as though in surrender.

"Don't worry about me" she said, then pointed at Harry "it's _his_ turn to destroy your shop, now."

She shoved her hands in the pockets of her blue hoodie and grinned cheekily "so, I see you managed to get things back in order, huh?"

Ollivander glared at her and turned to Harry, his glare dropping.

"Mister Potter, I was expecting you soon enough."

"Hello." Said Harry, awkwardly, wondering just what had gone on in the shop, as Ryou must have visited it earlier that day.

"You have your mother's eyes, Mister Potter. It seems only yesterday she was in here, herself, buying her own wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

Mister Ollivander walked forward and Harry wished that he would blink – the silvery eyes were creeping him out.

"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favoured it – the wand chooses the wizard after all."

Ryou snorted and Ollivander broke his gaze on Harry to glance at her. Seemingly deciding that he didn't care enough to retort, he turned back to his conversation with Harry.

"Which is your wand hand?"

"Err, well, I'm right handed" said Harry.

"Hold it out."

Harry put his right arm in, and then attempted to ignore Ryou who was humming under her breath what sounded like the tune to the hokey pokey. A measuring tape began measuring his arm without any help from Ollivander whatsoever.

Mr Ollivander flitted around shelves taking down boxes.

"That will do." He said to the tape measure that was measuring between Harry's nostrils. "Right then, Mr Potter, try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."

Harry took the wand and waved it, slightly, feeling slightly foolish at the action, but Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.

"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try-"

Harry tried, but once again it was snatched back by Mr Ollivander.

Harry must have gone through hundreds of wands, until Ollivander finally pulled one out of a pile.

"Try this. Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

Harry took the wand and a sudden warmth spread through his fingers. He raised the wand above his head and swished it down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a very impressive firework show.

"Interesting." Murmured Ollivander "very interesting."

"Sorry." Said Harry, "but, what's interesting."

"That the wand that has chosen you – why, its brother-" Ollivander pressed his fingers to Harry's forehead. "Its brother gave you that scar."

* * *

><p><strong>Phew! *wipes forhead* chapter four is OVER! That took me AGES! I made up for the very very late update by writing 8000 words! Also, I put more Ryou in this chapter! And for those of you that wanted more Yu-Gi-Oh characters, Marik is introduced! Draco Malfoy is a good guy! Ollivander doesn't like Ryou! What will happen next? You probably already know. Doesn't matter. It was rhetorical anyway.<strong>

**Seriously, this thing has been on every to-do list I've made over the last three months! Now I can finally check it off and try to start working on chapter five. **

**Tell me in your reviews if you want**

**1) Chapters this long, updated every so often.**

**2) Shorter chapters updated more frequently.**


	5. Decisions, Decisions

**Summary: What if Ryou and Harry were best friends, before he knew about Hogwarts. What if Ryou could wield Shadow Magick, herself? What if Ryou was a powerful shadow mage? What if she was there to help Harry throughout his years at Hogwarts, but at a distance?**

**Warnings: Fem!Ryou, AU, None of the original HP couples, takes a lot of text from original Potter book, long chapters, sticks almost to the original story with a lot of changes, Ron-bashing, Dumbledore-bashing.**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING! …Unfortunately.**

**A/N: This chapter will be a lot shorter, but, hey, it's not like you've been waiting three months this time around, right? Right? Also, this chapter isn't part of a scene from the book at all – I wrote it entirely by myself, so tell me what you think of it, alright?**

**Adding review replies! I completely forgot about these because I was in such a rush to get the chapter written and posted!**

**Person: First off, nice name! :D Here's a shorter chapter for you and it's just a few days after the last one! Aren't you proud?**

**Yakari School: Yay! I'm happy that you're happy that I updated! Thanks so much for the comment about Draco - I don't think I portrayed him quite right. I'm not sure what I was going for but it ended up imitating a couple of other fanfictions I've read where Draco is a good guy. Whoops.**

**Dark Neko 4000: I hope this chapter, although short, will answer your questions!**

**High Reacher: It was a very long chapter! From your review it seems that you enjoy long chapters, but I hope that you can enjoy this chapter anyway, despite how short it is!**

**Decisions, Decisions**

Ryou and Harry flopped down, exhausted on the sofa in Ryou's living room. Shopping had taken it out of them both and so had the rest of the day's events. As they dropped the bags they held carelessly to the floor, Harry thought back to one particular conversation with Ryou which had been preoccupying her thoughts for the entire time between then and the current moment.

* * *

><p>"<em>Okay, I've been putting off asking this for as long as I could, but I can't hold it in anymore!" Ryou burst out, suddenly. They had just bought his wand and several people had shaken Harry's hand. She turned to Harry. "Why are you famous? Why does everyone seem to want to shake your hand?"<em>

_Harry winced at the outburst, slightly, but quickly recovered._

"_Apparently when I was about a year old some evil wizard tried to kill me and completely failed and ended up dying instead, which is good news for me, not so good news for him." Harry tried to joke, but Ryou looked absolutely furious._

"_WHAT?" She said, loudly "Someone tried to _kill _you?" She bit her lip and glanced around the alley, looking concerned "Harry, are you sure you want to get involved with these people?" She asked quietly._

_Hagrid coughed loudly and was ignored._

"_Yeah," Harry said "It's not like the ordinary world doesn't have dangerous people and there's probably never going to be another chance for me to learn my own magic."_

_Ryou nodded in understanding, but she still liked extremely unhappy about the situation._

_They proceeded with awkward silence for almost the rest of the trip…until they got onto the train._

* * *

><p>Ryou sighed and rested her head on Harry's shoulder. She, too, was exhausted and thinking about a conversation from earlier that day – though a different one entirely.<p>

* * *

><p>"<em>I'll be seein' yeh at Hogwarts, 'Arry." Hagrid said in an attempt at a cheery farewell.<em>

"_Probably not." Harry replied._

"_Eh? Why not?"_

_Harry folded his arms across his chest "I can't go to Hogwarts without Ryou. Ever since we met each other we've never done anything this big without each other and we've always gone to the same school. I refuse to go if Ryou doesn't go with me." Harry's arms loosened slightly and he adopted a worried look on his face, turning to Ryou "that is, if she wants to go with me."_

"_Of course I want to go with you, Harry." She smiled at him reassuringly, which was a large relief as she had been giving him the silent treatment for a few hours now._

"_Ah, well I'll 'ave to – I'll 'ave teh speak wit' Professor Dumbledore abou' it…" Hagrid mumbled and walked off, without another word._

_Harry and Ryou looked at each other and shrugged. Now all they had to do was wait for the news of whether they would or would not be attending._

* * *

><p>Ryou turned to Harry.<p>

"Have I ever told you what a Duel Spirit is?"

"Hn? No, I don't think you have."

"Well, you know the Duel Monsters cards I have? The Monsters I can summon from the Shadow Realm? If a Duel Monster is your Ka it means that it is your spirit, so it is your Duel Spirit and you have a connection with it. Every Shadow Mage has a Duel Spirit, but not every Duel Monster has a Shadow Mage"

Harry mulled it over. "Interesting. Who's your Duel Spirit, then?"

"His name is Diabound. He's half man, half snake and giant in his Duel Spirit form. In the physical realm, he's just a snake." Ryou reached around her neck and took a snake off which Harry hadn't even noticed before. "Harry meet Diabound, Diabound this is Harry."

"_Nissscccee to meet you, hhharry." _Diabound hissed.

"Nice to meet you, too." Harry replied, bewildered.

Ryou smiled.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile….<strong>

* * *

><p>Dumbledore sat at his office desk, sucking on a sherbet lemon and fiddling with one of his many silver instruments as his dear friend and school's gamekeeper, Hagrid beguiled him with the tale of what had happened when he had taken the Boy-Who-Lived to Diagon Alley.<p>

"…and he said if 'is friend didn' come with 'im teh Hogwarts then he wouldn' attend at all!" said Hagrid, still shocked at this.

"I don't see a problem." The headmaster replied calmly. "Hogwarts welcomes anyone who wishes to attend and has magic."

"But 'is friend isn' a witch!"

Dumbledore frowned. "Then how could she possibly get into Diagon Alley?" He mused more to himself than to Hagrid.

Hagrid shook his head and shrugged his huge shoulders.

"Perhaps I should visit him" said Dumbledore "to explain where we stand on our student policy, but still – the Boy-Who-Lived – not getting any magical training – absurd – should be prepared."

Dumbledore walked over to the fire in his office, grabbed some powder and threw it down speaking clearly "Privet Drive, Little Whinging."

The fire flared green and Dumbledore had disappeared.

* * *

><p>There was a knock on the door and Harry and Ryou both picked their heads up but the rest of their bodies didn't seem to want to follow. There was another knock and Ryou managed to slide herself to the floor, then claw her way to the front door, using the wall as a support.<p>

She swung open the door and before her stood a very odd-looking man. He had a long white beard and hair and wore deep purple robes and pointy hat with golden sparkling stars decorating them.

"Can I…help you?" She asked, confused as to why such a person would be at her door. It was true that she had a habit of attracting strange and horrifying things and people to her, though they were more often scary or creepy than completely and utterly bizarre-looking.

The man smiled at her.

"Yes, I think you can help me. Is there a Mr Harry Potter here?"

Ryou turned her head back to the living room and raised her voice.

"Harry! It's for you!" she turned back to the man at the door. "Come in." She sighed, though she was wary of letting a stranger into her home.

"Thank you." He smiled and stepped inside. She led him to the living room where Harry was still attempting to get up and failing. He gave up completely once he saw that he no longer needed to move. Ryou collapsed down next to him once again and the man took a seat opposite more gracefully.

"I am Professor Dumbledore." He informed them.

Ryou groaned and Harry just nodded tiredly.

"I'm here to talk to you about your enrolment in Hogwarts."

"I'm not going if Ryou's not going." Harry declared.

"I don't think you understand the circumstances-"

"I'm not going if Ryou's not going." Harry repeated.

"Harry, m'boy, listen to me-"

"I'm not going if Ryou's not going." Harry said, louder this time.

"The problem is that I'm not a witch, isn't it?" the white-haired girl asked.

"Ah, I'm afraid that is the problem and one that must be dealt with accordingly." Dumbledore said, regretfully. He pulled his wand from the folds of his robes and pointed it at Ryou. "_Obliv-_"

In the middle of the word, Harry rugby tackled Dumbledore to the floor and the sparks remaining from the unfinished spell shot to the ceiling and vanished into nothingness.

Harry's eyes flashed with anger as he pointed accusingly at Dumbledore "Don't you _dare _do anything to my friend!"

Harry's grip around his neck was choking him of breath, so Dumbledore replaced his wand back inside his robes as a signal of surrender. Harry's grip slackened and he climbed off the old man, but seemed prepared to do whatever he had to if they were attacked again.

Ryou watched from the sofa. "I do have magick, just not the same kind of magic. I would be very happy – and I'm sure Harry would too – if you didn't try to use magic on me again."

Dumbledore nodded. "I see, you have your own brand of magic? Different to ours?"

"Yes."

"I apologise for my earlier actions. All magical children are allowed to attend Hogwarts. I will inform the staff that another student will be attending with different magical skills."

Ryou nodded stiffly and Harry just glared. The old man turned on the spot and disappeared with a crack.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: BAD DUMBLES! APOLOGISE TO RYOU-CHAN!**

**... so, it's only been 3 days since I last updated! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!? **

**Other than the fact that this chapter is 16 pages shorter than last chapter...oh well! No one can complain! I'm early in updating and you guys get another chapter! YAY!**

**Review, please? Harry will tackle you like he tackled Dumbledore if you don't! Right, Harry?**

**Harry: *looks up from his staring contest with Ryou***

**Ryou: HA! I win!**

**Harry: NO FAIR! I WAS DISTRACTED! I WANT A REMATCH!**

**I guess he's a bit busy right now...**


End file.
